Chipotle’s New Mobile Gaming App Is a Hit

Chipotle’s (CMG[1]) new anti-Big Food game has become a viral hit, nabbing a 4-star rating and has become among the Top 10 most popular free games on the iOS charts.

Chipotle launched the game hoping for just this payoff — doing little to no branding of the company in the game.

How the mobile gaming app works, via MediaPost:[2]

Our Scarecrow hero and game avatar works in the dystopian city of Plenty, where the nefarious Crow Foods has fully rationalized and industrialized food production. Chickens are hyped on chemistry, cows are caged and sorrowful.

While there is no real branding for Chipotle, the idea is that the message takes root: Stay away from fast-food places and avoid the processed-food takeover.

It is the persistence of the messaging that is most striking here. You play the Scarecrow, who in the early part of the game acts as a kind of corporate insurgent to keep vegetables from being processed at the factory and free caged animals before going about the business of building a more compassionate, sustainable food cultivation model.

The move aims to help the company move up against the Big Boy chains like McDonald’s and Burger King.